Convergence is where a single platform unifies data and applications traditionally hosted on different platforms. Convergence may be from the perspective of a hardware device. In this case, an example of device convergence may be a mobile phone equipped with a stylus and a touch screen to support software for calendaring, note taking, and other functionality typically hosted in a personal device assistant (“PDA”). Alternatively, convergence may be from the perspective of software applications. In this case, an example of software application convergence may be Unified Messaging where voicemail messages are rendered as electronic mail (“email”) thus obviating the need to check for pending messages on two mailboxes on two different and separate platforms. Yet another form of convergence may be from the perspective of data formats and/or protocols. In this case, an example of data format and/or protocol convergence is the blurring of packet networks which traditionally carried only application data and switch networks which traditionally carried only voice data. Post convergence, packet networks support protocols to carry voice data, and conversely switch networks support protocols to carry email, internet browsing and other application data.
The present widespread market acceptance of mobile cellular devices has driven many variations and combinations of hardware, software and data format and/or protocol convergence. As processing power for mobile devices increases, and input/output devices such as transducers and touch screens miniaturize, handheld form factor devices have been merged into mobile phones. Mobile music player functionality, PDA functionality, digital still camera functionality, video camera functionality, audio recorder functionality and geolocation functionality are but a few of the many device platforms that have been converged into a mobile phone device platform. The effort to pack such a large amount of functionality into a mobile phone has required a tremendous and expensive investment in the industry as well as a veritable technical tour-de-force.
However, successful device convergence does not necessarily lead to successful application convergence. For example, a mobile phone equipped with sufficient memory to carry a library of music and a headphone jack to render music, may not necessarily have user friendly software to quickly search and retrieve a particular song. It is possible for a user interface to be so inconvenient to use, that a typical user may simply not make use of present hardware functionality.
Similarly, successful device convergence does not necessarily lead to successful data format and/or protocol convergence. For example, a mobile phone may have a protocol stack capable of receiving application data over a cellular transport. However, the mobile phone may not have network drivers that expose an application programming interface (“API”) sufficiently rich to enable a wide range of applications. It is possible for an API to be so lacking or difficult to use that application developers are not able to provide users with applications that fully exploit the possibilities afforded by data format and/or protocol convergence.
In either of these situations, any market advantage achieved by converging hardware functionality is lost. In general, overcoming tremendous difficulties in convergence may not be rewarded in the market without corresponding improvements in user experience and application developer support.